(SCL10b) Sociology of Space, Place, and Time II

Social processes occur in space and over time (Maritn and Miler, 2003). Thus, social processes are intertwined with spatiality and temporality. Everything we study is emplaced ... place is not merely a setting or backdrop, but an agentic player in the game (Gieryn, 2000). In this session, we explore a diverse body of research that intersects with the sociology of space, place, and time. We encouraged submissions from various theoretical and methodological approaches that place an emphasis on the spatiality or temporality of social processes. Tags: Communautés, Culture, Rural Et Urbain

Organizers: Foroogh Mohammadi, Acadia University, Pouya Morshedi, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador; Chairs: Foroogh Mohammadi, Acadia University, Pouya Morshedi, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

Presentations

Tristan Nkoghe, Concordia University

The liminal body: Space, place, time, and sexuality

Through the concept of liminality, I explore the body as place and space—two entities necessarily intertwined, and yet offering distinct ontological answers to questions surrounding sexuality, intimacy, and identity. Liminality, as a transitional and in-between conceptual tool, is defined and utilized in order to explore the body, its various meanings, and understandings. Liminality was first introduced by Arnold van Gennep as a concept in the field of anthropology in order to explore and study societal rites of passages and the changing status of people within communities and tribes. He understood it as a period of transition in the middle of two overarching societal and/or individual states. For example, he found that in certain tribes and small-scale societies, boys only became men when they left the tribe for a period of time to live and fend on their own and by themselves. It is only when they came back from this societal hiatus that they could then be considered as men amongst their peers. Liminality has since been adopted in both the social sciences and the humanities. The malleability of the concept as well as its relevance in the aftermath of postmodernism and the post-Truth era lend itself well to identifying theoretical and ontological problems that have risen since liminality was first introduced. The ambiguousness of experiences, the transitional nature of social status and relationships, and the in-betweenness it highlights move away from fixed and rigid understandings of the social world. Therefore, liminality allows for a freeing and creative approach to contemporary problems—problems that cannot be answered with the either/or dichotomy. In a lot of instances, the answer resides somewhere between the both/and realm. In geography studies, and especially with Yi-Fu Tuan, the concepts of space and place have gained traction and have been theorized and explored in myriad ways identifying their similarities and differences. However, both space and place have often been discussed in terms of locality, urban planning, and the environment on macro- and micro-scales. In this research, I apply much of the theoretical underpinnings of space and place of geography but apply them to the body—as an instance of both place and space. This novel understanding of the body introduces the uncertainties of liminality and the constraining and liberating qualities of space and place in order to problematize how we relate to our body, as well as understand its social role. Through interpretive social science, sociology of the body, and cultural anthropology, I present the liminal body as an expression of space and place. The role of time in this theoretical framework is closely linked to context. Not only immediate and apparent context, but also the overarching structures mediating encounters and relationships. Time, in its micro- and macro-considerations therefore informs and alters how the body is embodied and perceived. Nakedness in communal showers is embodied and felt differently than nakedness in the comfort of one’s bedroom or within the intimacy of relationships. The continually changing and morphing relationships of people with their body highlights the inherent complexity of the body as well as its intimate relationship with space, place, and time. Essentially, theorizing the liminal body presents the embodied experience of everyday life through its ambiguousness and uncertainties, linking the contingencies of space, place, and time as meaningful markers of the transitional nature of the body. The social, economic, and gendered dynamics of interactions come to manipulate, play with, disrupt, create, and alter the bodies in ways not always anticipated, and sometimes in liberating fashion. The agency offered to time, space, and place in this theoretical context lend themselves well to the session’s emphasis on social processes in the contexts of everyday life. The focused approach on the body as a site and symbol of space and place moves the perspective of space and place as being exterior to the body to seeing it as an embodied component of it. Through this ontological novelty, it becomes possible to relate to our body in evolving ways and understand our relationships with other bodies as constantly evolving.

Rob Shields, University of Alberta

Social Spatialisation, Conflict and Spatial Justice

In what ways is justice not only social but necessarily spatial? This paper argues that struggles over place, space and worlding continue to be a key component of contemporary conflicts. The paper considers research on the relevance of social spatialisation to spatial justice in which all territories entail normative spatial practices, judgements and frames. Spatial justice as a problematic, links practices of resistance, social movements and even states of civil war. This challenges neoliberal and other procedural understandings of justice and those that tend to recast justice as a form of political struggle between interests. What are the spatialities of justice and ethics and how are they em-placed? The paper also extends notions of rights into the spatial, as a right-to-space or a right-to-land that may be applicable to land reform, land claims, property as land title, struggles over the identity of cultural territories and the loss of homelands and cultural territory by the exiled, colonized and those displaced by force.

Devan Hunter, University of Guelph

Public Space and intergenerationality: Exploring the intersection of spatiality and sociality in everyday life

Intergenerational spaces are those that create opportunities for the inclusion of and interaction between different age and generational groups within one space. In opposition to this though, much of North American society, and Canada in particular, is highly age segregated (e.g. school systems, long-term care facilities, workplaces, etc.). Indeed, sociologists of aging, such as Hagestad and Uhlenberg (2005; 2006) explain that features of this chronologic separation occur within institutional, spatial and cultural spheres in urbanized industrial nation-states where there is an interplay between such spheres. This ultimately results in macro-level structures of age segregation, meso-level patterns of age-homogenous association, and micro-level processes of age segregation in everyday life. And, while age segregation continues to be a dominant feature of North American society, certain spaces afford us the opportunity to disrupt such barriers to connecting across (age and generation-related) differences. Commonly studied intergenerational spaces include organized, formalized and programmatic spaces. Less studied, but equally important, are those informal spaces of mundane intergenerational interactions in everyday life (Yarker 2019). Broadly speaking, public space is one such space. This intersection between intergenerationality and public space is the crux of my research. Drawing on data from the second and third phases of my doctoral study on intergenerationality in Canadian public spaces, along with research I am conducting for the Sociable Cities Project (University of Guelph), this presentation will explore how social infrastructure and various features of public space iteratively shape, and are shaped by, processes of intergenerationality. To accomplish this, I am studying intergenerationality in four different types of public spaces in Guelph, Ontario: a library (Guelph Public Library), a park (Exhibition Park), a skatepark (Silvercreek Skatepark), and an ice rink (Market Square Ice Rink). My findings will be drawn from both 150 hours of ethnographic observations of these four spaces in total, as well as 50 on-site interviews with participants in these public spaces (all to be completed by May 2024). Theoretically, my study is oriented towards a cultural sociological tradition that centers interpretive logics of meaning-making, along with a close engagement with Klinenberg’s (2018) theory of social infrastructure. In doing so, I will highlight key findings related to not only the role of public space in constituting various processes of intergenerationality, but furthermore, what types of intergenerational encounters, interactions, and relations are afforded by the social infrastructure of these various public spaces. Examples of key findings I will discuss include, but are not limited to: participants’ perceptions of intergenerational co-presence in public spaces; intergenerational negotiations of public space; experiences of solidarity and conflict amongst age-diverse populations; how age segregation is both contested and culturally reproduced in the temporal uses of public spaces; and, how boundaries of age-appropriate social relations shift within the context of public space. Overall, my aim is to emphasize the deep entanglement between spatiality and sociality, particularly with respect to intergenerationality, to thus explore not only the possibilities for connection across difference in everyday life, but also why such connection matters in the development of a resilient and inclusive society.

Gabrielle Isabel Abando, University of British Columbia

'Tao Po!': An exploration of the role of Filipino-Canadian neighbourhoods in anchoring and cultivating Filipino-Canadian community

Within the last fifty years, Filipinos have become one of the largest ‘visible minority’ groups in Canada, and yet Filipino-Canadian literature is still a budding field. To date, most foundational work has focused on the macro sociopolitical factors of Filipino-Canadian immigration or sociocultural factors of Filipino-Canadian experience. This paper aims to re-embed Filipino-Canadian literature in the everyday settings in which these experiences take place. Though literature extensively describes how Filipino lives stretch across space, rarely are such conversations grounded in the daily settings and spaces they occupy. Even less discussed is how and why these spaces become spaces that bind communities together – thus their importance. Understanding space as a dialectic between society and space, spaces must be understood in the context of their everyday making and remaking – the push and pull between the actors who occupy it. And yet, much literature on Filipino diasporic space is written in the retrospective: mourning spaces lost to us. Extensive work has been done on the policy and sociopolitical factors that enable gentrification of immigrant community space, but how are we to assert the importance of these spaces without understanding them as they are experienced every day? Despite being a ‘gateway city’ for immigrants due to its proximity to the Pacific, Vancouver’s Filipino Canadian community remains understudied relative to the East coast. As Vancouver rises to ‘global city’ status, the city is a real-time case study in how ethnic communities hold themselves together in a highly dynamic culture and cityscape. How the city handles the maintenance of these spaces, then, will be significant. As Vancouver’s own Joyce-Collingwood neighbourhood, a commonly known ‘hub’ for Filipino immigrants, teeters on the edge of gentrification, capturing the space as it functions for the community offers invaluable insight into how immigrant communities generate their own space, what makes these spaces accessible, how space tends to these communities. With this in mind, the following project investigates the specific spatial mechanisms by which Filipino-Canadians feel attached to a space that imbues it with a community and cultural significance. This project uses a combination of ethnographic field notes and semi-structured interviews with Filipino-Canadian Joyce-Collingwood residents and regulars analyzed through qualitative coding methods. Anyone who identifies themselves as a member of the Filipino-Canadian community and is a Joyce-Collingwood resident or regular (measured by visiting the neighbourhood at least once a month) was eligible for participation. Participants were asked about their daily routines in the neighbourhood, personal stories of connection that take place within the neighbourhood, the role of the neighbourhood in facilitating their feelings of belonging both within the Filipino-Canadian community but also within Canada more generally, and whether or not the small businesses and centralized local community feel of the area differs to larger Filipino chain restaurants scattered throughout the city. Ethnographic field notes supplement interview data, collected by the author, herself a recent Filipino immigrant, and were taken over the course of five months. This project is a work in progress, but emergent themes include: transit accessibility, intersections with class, spatial visibility as identity affirmation, feelings of community camaraderie, and community agency. Most vitally, this research stresses the importance of understanding these spaces holistically; that the preservation of only immigrant businesses is not adequate to sustain these safe havens for immigrants. Rather, they must be understood as an integrated whole.